Wills/Bequests
Making a lifetime gift by bequest is easy.
When you support the Friends of BCAS through your will (bequest) or with another kind of planned gift, you reinforce your commitment to our community’s homeless and neglected animals. Supporting a local charity this way can make a huge impact in saving lives in your own backyard for generations to come.
When donating to the Friends of BCAS in your will, you can designate a specific dollar amount, a percentage of your estate, or a portion of the residual of your estate, whichever is best for your circumstances. However because of inflation, leaving a percentage of your estate will have a greater impact on our charity than a flat rate. To include the Friends of BCAS in your will, simply direct your attorney to use this language:
“I give and bequeath the sum of $ __ (or, ___ percentage of my estate) to the the Friends of the Burlington County Animal Shelter, a New Jersey nonprofit corporation (federal EIN 45-4598820).”
All bequests pass to the Friends of BCAS free of estate taxes and lower the overall size of your estate for tax purposes.
If you would like to include the Friends of BCAS in your will but need assistance, the Friends of BCAS has financial advisors and attorneys who are willing to work with potential donors.
For more information, you can contact friendsofbcas.org@gmail.com.
Annuities and Trusts
By creating a charitable gift annuity or trust, you can have income for life while helping the Friends of BCAS.
You can help our community’s animals and at the same time receive income for life and the life of your beneficiary. Charitable gift annuities and charitable remainder trusts are both methods of giving that are used by organizations to benefit their programs.
Annuities and trusts are wonderful strategies if you have appreciated assets (typically stocks or property) and you would like to increase your income. Charitable gift annuities are popular because they provide a fixed income to you for life regardless of the market conditions.
A charitable remainder trust is an irrevocable trust that pays you a percentage of the trust’s value on a regular schedule, and if desired, the lifetime of one beneficiary. Upon the donor’s (or beneficiary’s) death, the principle passes to the Friends of BCAS without any estate taxes.
Since a trust is a legal entity, you will need an attorney to draft a trust agreement. You will also need to appoint a trustee to oversee the fund’s investment and distribution of payments. The Friends of BCAS can serve as the trustee for qualifying gifts, however, you are always able to select your own trustee.
If you would like help creating a charitable annuity or trust but need assistance, the Friends of BCAS has financial advisors and attorneys who are willing to work with potential donors.
For more information, email Theresa K., Friends of BCAS president, at: friendsofbcas.org@gmail.com.
Life Insurance and Retirement Plans
You can play an important role in improving the welfare of animals in our community by making a gift of a life insurance policy or retirement account to the Friends of BCAS.
Both life insurance and retirement accounts can be used to make a charitable gift to the Friends of BCAS. By using either of these methods, you can make a larger gift than an outright cash gift. Most often, you can make the gift with no or little loss of income and also receive a substantial tax deduction.
Over time, circumstances in your life may change and reasons you purchased insurance or saved for retirement may change. If you have coverage you no longer need, you may consider contributing a fully paid “whole life” insurance policy to the Friends of BCAS by making us your primary or secondary beneficiary. This doesn’t provide an upfront tax deduction because it is revocable. If you want to provide income from your retirement account for a spouse or another beneficiary, you can direct that the proceeds from the plan fund a charitable gift. In this instance, the estate will be taxed but receives a credit for the contribution.
If making a gift and receiving a tax benefit are important to you, transferring ownership of the policy to the Friends of BCAS is the best way to go. Transferring ownership is irrevocable which enables donors to receive a tax benefit for the cash value of the policy. As the donor, you are still the insured individual; however, the policy ownership is transferred to the Friends of BCAS and it will receive the proceeds.
If you would like help making a planned gift but need assistance, the Friends of BCAS has financial advisors and attorneys who are willing to work with potential donors.
For more information, contact Theresa K., Friends of BCAS president, at friendsofbcas.org@gmail.com.
Gift of Appreciated Property
You can help animals for years to come with a gift of stocks or property.
Few financial tools are more powerful than appreciated property, specifically stocks and real estate. They can be given at any time and have the ability to magnify wealth faster than nearly any other financial method. In many cases, a person who donates an appreciated asset to a charity instead of selling it can take a charitable deduction for the full value of the property while also avoiding capital gains on the property.
Appreciated assets are usually transferred to the Friends of BCAS and then sold. In most cases, if you have held securities for more than one year you can deduct the market value of the securities and avoid paying any capital gains tax. If the shares are held in your broker’s office, transferring securities is easy. Simply contact us and we will provide your broker with all the needed information. If you have land, a second home or other real estate you wish to donate, they have similar benefits to appreciated securities. It is also possible to donate your home to the Friends of BCAS and retain lifetime use of the property. A trust may be created based upon the value of the home at the time of the donation.
If you would like help making a gift of appreciated property but need assistance, the Friends of BCAS has financial advisors and attorneys who are willing to work with potential donors.
For more information, you can contact Theresa K., Friends of BCAS president, at friendsofbcas.org@gmail.com.
IRA Beneficiary Donation
You also can make a charitable gift to the Friends of BCAS through an IRA. Few people realize an IRA is a better way to make charitable gifts than using a will to give other assets in the estate.
An IRA is included in the taxable estate and is potentially subject to estate taxes. In addition, when the beneficiary takes distributions from the IRA, the distributions are taxed as ordinary income. The after-tax cash that flows to the beneficiary from an IRA is less than 100 percent of the beginning value. How much less depends on the estate tax rate and the beneficiary’s income tax rate. When someone inherits non-IRA assets, the receipt of those assets is tax free, and the tax basis usually is increased to current fair market value. The assets might have been subject to the estate tax, but they can be sold tax free.
When a charity is the IRA beneficiary, the IRA still is included in the estate. But the estate takes a charitable deduction for the portion of the IRA for which the charity is the beneficiary. When the charity receives a distribution from the IRA, there are no income taxes because the charity is tax exempt. The charity gets the benefit of the entire distribution. The charity is indifferent to whether it inherits IRA or non-IRA assets. When you’re going to give part of your estate to charity, the rest of your beneficiaries probably are better off inheriting non-IRA assets and letting the charity benefit from the IRA.
If you would like help making a gift of an IRA but need assistance, the Friends of BCAS has financial advisors and attorneys who are willing to work with potential donors.
For more information, you can contact Theresa K., Friends of BCAS president, at friendsofbcas.org@gmail.com.